BHA Banners

A Word From Our Executive Director

Feedback is a gift. We’d all like to get positive feedback and comments on the work we do. But that doesn’t make us grow and improve. A wise man once observed, “All sunshine makes a desert.”

In our efforts to ensure the work we do in administering the Section 8 Housing Choice Program is of the highest quality, we desire to get feedback from property owners and managers about their experience partnering with Bremerton Housing Authority.

Here’s the link to a survey we’ve recently developed. It only takes a few minutes to complete.

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is the largest program administered locally by BHA. In addition to the 371 vouchers managed by BHA for Housing Kitsap, we have 1,882 of our own vouchers, for a total of 2,253 rental subsidies. This number is far greater than that 573 apartments we own and manage in Bremerton.

Housing Choice Vouchers are used to provide affordable rental housing for qualified individuals and families throughout Kitsap and Mason counties. For the HCV program to be successful, we partner with rental properties owners. The private landlord provides the rental unit and BHA uses federal HCV funds to pay a subsidy to ensure qualified renters pay a rent that is affordable to them. These rental properties vary in size from single family homes to apartments in complexes of over 200 units.

Each month BHA staff process eligibility documents for hundreds of participating households, determine rent portions, calculate subsidies, inspect properties for health and safety, adjust contract rents, and ensure owners get their rent subsidy by the 1st of each month. Our goal is to have each of these tasks done efficiently, accurately, and timely.

Rental markets ebb and flow based on economic conditions. Current shortages of rental housing have caused rents to rise dramatically and vacancies to drop to historic lows. Through good times and bad, BHA wants local landlords to partner with us because it makes solid business sense, gives them a return on their property investment, and provides a critical need for low income households to have a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home.

We don’t have opportunities enough to thank our landlord partners. We are grateful for property owners and managers who participate in the Housing Choice Voucher program. For those who are currently partnering with us, we sincerely seek your feedback on how we’re doing and how we can improve.